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Aug 28, 2024 Web Exclusive By Mark Redfern and Marina Malin Photography by Wyndham Garrett

My Firsts is our email interview series where we ask musicians to tell us about their first life experiences, be it early childhood ones (first word, first concert, etc.) or their first tastes of being a musician (first band, first tour, etc.). For this My Firsts we talk to Shana Cleveland of La Luz.

La Luz released a new album, News of the Universe, in May via Sub Pop. Cleveland was diagnosed with breast cancer two years after the birth of her son, which led to the postponement of shows in 2022.

“Seeing the cycle of life, seeing things grow out of decay, the decay of other living things—was super comforting to me. I had to get to a place where I felt more comfortable with the idea of death,” Cleveland said in a press release announcing the new album.

News of the Universe features a changing of the guard in terms of La Luz’s lineup—it’s the first appearance for drummer Audrey Johnson and the final ones from longtime members Lena Simon (bass) and Alice Sandahl (keyboards). La Luz worked with producer Maryam Qudos (Spacemoth) on the album and the collaboration went so well that Qudos has joined the band as their new keyboardist.

“There are moments on this album that sound to me like the last frantic confession before an asteroid destroys the earth,” says Cleveland, summing up News of the Universe.

From Seattle, La Luz has been making music since 2012 and have four previous acclaimed studio albums under their belt. La Luz directly translates to “the light” in Spanish. Drawing inspiration from surf rock and girl groups, their shows encourage an energetic audience and crowd surfing. Though rowdy, News of the Universe is deeply vulnerable, yet empowering.

News of the Universe is La Luz’s debut on Sub Pop (previously they were on the sister label Hardly Art). The album speaks to urgency and embracing a changing world with unconditional love as it finds Cleveland in a world-shattering and panicked state of mind. The earthly imagery scattered throughout the record is inspired by Cleveland’s post-diagnosis coping walks outdoors. Entirely made by women, Cleveland created a comfortable environment that allowed her to explore difficult emotions that she has been taught to suppress.

Read on as Cleveland talks about The Smashing Pumpkins member she had a crush on, her job that led her into strangers’ homes to talk about conspiracies, what country inspired her first songs, and being young and stoned in Chicago, walking into a Zwan music video stoned, and stoned snacks.

First job you had?

I did some pretty funny odd jobs around the neighborhood as a kid but my first official job was door-to-door canvassing for the Sierra Club during summer vacation. They would divide us into teams every morning and send us to different towns around Southwest Michigan where I grew up. Then they would just drop me off alone somewhere with a paper map (this was before everyone had a cellphone) and I would knock on strangers’ doors and recite a speech about the environment and if I got to the end of the speech before someone shut the door in my face, I asked them for money. I met some real freaks out there. A lot of lonely people just wanted me to stay and hang out with them so I did in hopes that it would lead to them giving me money, but it rarely did. I remember eating crackers with an old lady in her sunroom and being an unwitting audience to many a conspiracy theory delivered by men sitting in lawn chairs outside their garages.

First band you were in?

When I was about seven years old, I had a band with a couple friends from my block called The Unicorns. I wrote a handful of original songs like “It’s Only In My Dreams” and “Sugar-filled Guitar” and “There’s a Town Underneath Me” (about Australia for some reason?), and my parents let us open for their blues band at the Greek Festival in Kalamazoo, Michigan. I wish there was a video of this somewhere.

First roommate?

Her name was Mimi and we lived in the dorms of Columbia College in downtown Chicago. We were best friends and always getting stoned and walking to Buckingham Fountain, or the deli that had frozen yogurt, or to the waterfront. Chicago was a fun place to be on your own for the first time. One day I was stoned and walking through Grant Park and I saw Billy Corgan bounding through the hills with an acoustic guitar. I couldn’t believe my eyes and just stood there with my mouth hanging open before being ushered away by someone with a walkie-talkie moments later. Apparently, I had wandered into a Zwan video shoot.

First car you owned?

A dark red Geo Metro. I paid $600 and it was pretty good! I carried a shovel in the back so I could dig my way out when my car got covered in snow or I got stuck in a snowbank, things that were always happening in Michigan and that just feels like a weird dream to me now after living on the West Coast for so long.

First person you kissed?

His name was David and he was my first boyfriend. We were totally in love and it was sweet but after we broke up he dated this girl that I thought was really annoying and he refused to talk to me and I slapped him at prom. I think that’s the only time I’ve ever slapped anyone actually and it’s embarrassing to think about. Not my proudest moment, but I do think he sort of deserved it somehow.

First favorite band?

The Smashing Pumpkins was the first band I was fully obsessed with. I listened to them all the time and I had a big crush on James Iha. I went on my first date (with David) to see them in an arena in Lansing, MI, that was a big moment. Recently, I was in a record store and Pisces Iscariot was on and it was like stepping into a time machine.

First musician you had a crush on?

Yup, James Iha. I don’t know what it was, probably the fact that he was in this great rock band and was a person of color, I’m sure that was part of it. There weren’t a lot of them out there and he was so cute. He also seemed funny and sarcastic in a low-key way.

First favorite song?

I’ll just stay on theme here and say “Today” by The Smashing Pumpkins. It probably wasn’t the first time I had a favorite song, but it was the first song I remember being totally obsessed with. I still love that song and the video is great too, I’ve been wanting to try and recreate that video.

First time you got fired?

I was fired from my job at a bookstore for going on tour around the time I started La Luz. Luckily I managed to find a copy-writing job through a friend and I was able to do that freelance when I wasn’t on tour. Making that leap from having a regular job to doing music as a job is a really tricky thing to navigate.

First professional recording session?

I was in a band called the Curious Mystery and we booked some time in a studio in Tacoma to record our first EP. We slept on the floor of the studio to save money on gas and lodging (we lived in Seattle at the time), and I remember going to the grocery store on the way to pick up snacks and for some reason all we bought were strawberries and champagne. We must have been stoned. I just remember laughing about the romantic nature of our snacks when we opened our grocery bag later.

www.laluzband.com

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